Yes, it comes with 8Mb and can only be expanded to 16Mb... but this company from Germany (www.memsolution.com/)makes a 32Mb expansion board for around Â£30, which is absolutely great and easy to install if you know how to solder. The sound of the S2800i is clear and bright, but has less body than, say, the S1000. The machine does freeze occasionally and mine cannot save to the external HD when another SCSI device (a CD-ROM drive) is connected, although it'll load from it. Strange. Nevertheless, it's an excellent sampler with lots of delay/chorus type effects (no reverb).

Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Saturday-Mar-11-2006 at 07:35

Martin Bell
a hobbyist user
from UK
writes:

This thing is great a real work horse unit altough it took time to get used with the interface for a first time Akai user but after you are used with it it's a real quik way of working I got mine for a cool £100!! but only 2meg and no optional boards. Also I just got a S2000 for £50!!!!! This is how much they whanted me to pay for the 8 meg moard!!!

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Tuesday-Jul-08-2003 at 09:59

Henry
a part-time user
from Sweden
writes:

I like the interface, it´s quite easy to use. The sound quality is good, the filters are cool, the only drawback is that you just can use one effect at a time. Besides that it´s a very good machine. Solid built and very reliable. Never hangs like Ensoniq samplers. Be sure to get one with at least 10mb and the SCSI card installed. Cheap and good semi-old timer.

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Tuesday-May-28-2002 at 16:42

sjmojo
a professional user
writes:

sorry for mis-entered on the last post. the s2800 is solid built than the new mid-priced model akais(s3000xl,s2000,mpc2000,etc)but i paid too much for it 'coz i bought it in 94 and just b4 the s3000xl released.only the akai custom-made 8mb ram expansion costed me $700!the sampler alone costed me $$2500!another scsi option board costed me $100 more(total investment on this=$3300!)sound-wise,typical akai crystal clear quality but lacks some warmth,has built in effects,compared to the eb16 which i used w/ the latter models s3000xl and mpc2000,obviously this built in effector got better dynamics than eb16,maybe the dac on older s-series are better than the new ones.it's user-friendly and this made the akai became the industry-standard.only 4 outs and can't be expanded is a drawback.basically,it's discontinued and replaced by the s3000xl(the same metal case and design layout but more functions,cheaper ram).at today's standard,2800 not a worth to cost too much as i paid for it,only the effects and dac better.but if u can get it one today around $250-$300 and don't care it'stoo flat sounding,buy it.